New vehicles, additional police officers, and perhaps a new town park with access to Jonathan Creek may be part of Maggie Valley’s plans for 2024-25 or following years. Those were among the plans and ideas floated during the board of aldermen’s visionary session March 27 to discuss goals for the...

It has been a busy few weeks in the courts for an organization that has been a staunch advocate for North Carolinians with disabilities. Disability Rights North Carolina announced a settlement agreement on Wednesday with the state Department of Health and Human Services in a long-running state court battle known...

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cemented economic links and cultural amity with North Carolina on Friday, following up time in Washington during his official U.S. visit by checking up on benchmark Japanese companies building in the ninth-most populous state and meeting with students. In between, Kishida lunched at the governor’s...

When Democrat Jim Hunt was elected lieutenant governor in 1972, tobacco was still the undisputed king in Eastern North Carolina. And no place was it celebrated as much as in the city of Wilson. Festive tobacco auctions were an annual ritual in the city, not far from the farming community...

The Southern Environmental Law Center is among more than 40 environmentalist groups who sent a letter warning a permit reform bill, co-introduced by Congressman David Rouzer, would “put polluter profits ahead of public health.” On March 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7023 — the “Creating Confidence in...

The search for a suitable software program to verify absentee voters’ signatures has proven more difficult than expected, according to a North Carolina State Board of Elections official. The Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly passed sweeping elections legislation last year. One expansive law required a pilot program for signature verification,...

Voters in the 9th Congressional district will see an independent candidate on their ballots this fall. Shelane Etchison, a former Army officer with two graduate degrees from Harvard, has collected enough verified signatures to make it onto the ballot, according to the state Board of Elections website. She faces incumbent...

On Thursday, UNC Asheville announced layoffs in its Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and the Office of the Chancellor departments. The layoffs are part of a plan to address a projected $6 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year and an $8 million projected deficit for the following fiscal year,...

Duke is discontinuing its Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship Program, a program for “top applicants of African descent,” in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision that ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The announcement comes amidst a nascent national trend, with a number of public universities ending their...

Cumberland County and the Fayetteville Public Works Commission are partnering to bring public water to Gray’s Creek and two elementary schools where residents have used specialized filters and bottled water for years to avoid exposure to toxic PFAS chemicals. The news on Friday came two days after Michael Regan, the...

The Guilford County Republican Party has made a decision as to who it wants to fill the remaining term of NC Representative Jon Hardister, who announced recently that he was stepping down from his NC House District 59 seat. And the winner is, to little surprise of anyone, highly conservative...

As the debate over Medicaid expansion continues in Florida, lawmakers are turning their attention to North Carolina as a potential model. North Carolina, which recently expanded its Medicaid program despite initial resistance, has caught the interest of Florida legislators seeking insights into the process. Florida is one of only 10...

The dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts at UNC-Chapel Hill could begin in earnest as soon as this month, say two members of the university’s board of trustees. Trustees will likely meet this month in a yet-to-be-scheduled special meeting, finalizing the campus budget before forwarding it to the...

Although UNC-Chapel Hill has released its admissions decisions, the university hasn’t been able to make any financial aid offers. Complications with the form college-bound students fill out to qualify for federal financial aid are delaying university financial aid packages. The U.S. Department of Education redesigned its Free Application for Federal...

An attorney representing Jordan Kita and Austin Wood says a Pender County jury ruled this week that a Washington, D.C. civil rights law firm published defamatory statements about the two men following an incident that made national headlines. Kita and Wood were acquitted in 2021 on charges related to the...